Chief executive of Centrica, Sam Laidlaw, took home almost £5m in 2012 after bonuses. His basic pay
was almost £1m. Photograph: PA

Energy bosses at Centrica, owners of British Gas, have come under fire for sharing out a £16.4m pay pot in 2012, after consumers' energy bills jumped during a bitterly cold winter.

Centrica chief executive Sam Laidlaw earned a basic salary of £950,000 in 2012, but bonuses pushed his take-home pay to almost £5m.

Phil Bentley, managing director of British Gas, who is stepping down later this year, pocketed £3.1 million in total pay and bonuses in 2012, while fellow executives Mark Hanafin, Nick Luff and Chris Weston, shared £8.5m between them, the company reported, after a cold snap when British Gas consumer gas prices jumped 6%.

The storm over Centrica's pay – a 6% rise on last year between the five executives – comes as local authority pension funds seek to curb lavish rewards among bosses at the UK's largest 350 companies.

The Centrica pay bonanza was condemned by Caroline Flint, the shadow energy secretary. "British Gas customers will be astonished at these bumper payouts. When hard-pressed families have seen their bills go up by £100 this winter there are serious questions to answer about how they can justify paying millions to their executives," she said.

Deborah Hargreaves, director of the High Pay Centre, said: "When people are struggling to pay their fuel bills they might wonder why Sam Laidlaw is taking home £5m. Many people wonder why their bills go up so quickly when wholesale prices rise, but do not fall when the market prices go in the other direction."

Frances O'Grady, TUC general secretary said: "At a time when the poorest households are struggling to make ends meet and are spending over a quarter of their incomes on fuel bills, these huge payouts are insensitive beyond belief. We keep being told that bills have to rise to pay for investment in our future energy supply. However, these figures suggest that the price rises are in fact being used to fund exorbitant pay hikes."

Dave Prentis, general secretary of Unison, said: "Customers have every right to be totally outraged at the greed of these directors and their obscene bonuses."

But a Centrica spokesman defended the rewards as "squarely on performance".

"In 2012, we delivered another year of consistent earnings growth and invested £2.7bn to secure energy supplies for our customers, as we continued to improve service levels both in the UK and North America," he said.

The payouts could anger investors one year after the so-called 'shareholder spring' triggered a wave of boardroom resignations amid fury over high pay.

Hargreaves said: "It is about time shareholders started holding companies to account over pay and the closed shop that runs our top businesses."